Illinois fans seemed to leave behind their intense animosity for all-things Indiana when the Hoosiers visited Champaign earlier this season, largely because their top targets are no longer affiliated with the school’s basketball program.

The game at Assembly Hall West was short on taunts and nasty chants. But based on the energy put into chants at Assembly Hall East on Sunday afternoon, it’s clear that many Indiana fans still dislike Bruce Weber. The sellout crowd broke into chants of “Sit down Weber” and “Weber sucks,” focusing a lot of their energy on the Illini coach. They also dredged up an “Eric Gordon” chant, the relevance of which was not apparent other than to bring up old wounds.

This all started during the Gordon controversy, but with Gordon gone along with coach Kelvin Sampson the continued venom might have something to do with Weber’s comment last summer when he suggested that Indiana would “suck” this season while talking to a group of fans in Peoria. The comment was never meant to be a serious analysis of the Hoosiers, but it leaked out and fanned the flames.

Weber was booed Sunday when he emerged from the tunnel minutes before tip-off. The noise quieted when he approached Indiana coach Tom Crean at midcourt, beginning a lengthy conversation. The two seem to be on great terms and continued to rave about each other during the post-game press conferences.

And Weber didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the fans.

“I thought the crowd was good, nothing out of the ordinary,” he said. “I give them kudos to sell this place out and continue to support the team, it’s just amazing to be honest. Our goal was to keep them quiet. We got them into it a little in the second half. True fans are there win or lose and they’re truly showing a special face.”

Crean went out of his way to complement Illinois after taking a second loss from the Illini. “I think they’re ranked too low in terms of not getting the respect nationally they deserve,” he said.

–Guard Demetri McCamey played with an illness that hit him Friday and Saturday. He missed all five of his shots and had two points and three assists in 26 minutes.

“He didn’t have much energy,” Weber said. “He gave it a good go and ran out of life and energy and sruggled the rest of the time.”

Trent Meacham also had an off game due to foul trouble. He missed most of the first half after picking up his second foul and couldn’t get into a rhythm in the second half as the fouled mounted before he picked up No. 5. His fiancee, St. Louis University player Theresa Lisch, was in attendance.

“I was ready to go — maybe a little too ready,” he said. “It was a little frustrating but we played great as a team.”

One of his bigger contributions came after he fouled out. The crowd was doing the usual chant of calling out a player’s steps — “left, right, left, right” — and waiting for Meacham to take a seat so it could yell “Sit down.” Meacham waited to sit until Indiana’s Malik Story was about to launch a free throw. Fans shouted “Sit down” as Story released the ball, missing the free throw.

–Indiana revived the tactic of not guarding Chester Frazier on the perimeter. The Illini guard seemed tentative at first, passing up repeated open shots. But he eventually fired away, hitting a key 3-pointer. He also missed a couple. Purdue did the same thing two years ago, going so far as to give Frazier open shots near the free-throw line.

“They make it easy on me,” he said. “I can sit out there, hold the ball, dribble the ball and find my open teammates. I hope another team does it. It makes it easy on me.”

Weber felt Frazier got a “little shook” at first and said the defensive maneuver was responsible for getting Indiana back in the game. But Frazier calmed down to make big plays

“You’ve got to give him credit,” Weber said. “He took it as a challenge. He got a little shook but played like a senior. He’s done it all year. I was just praying (the 3-pointer) would go in for his sake. He deserved it. When good things happen to him, it just makes me feel good.”

–Although they’re two losses behind Michigan State in the standings, several players said the possibility of a Big Ten championship is looming larlge in their minds.

“It’s on our mind every game,” forward Dominique Keller said. “But we have to win out if we want to have a chance to compete. We’re going for it like it’s the Big Ten championship every game. You don’t know what can happen.”